Mauldin Park Attack Hoax May Have Been Perpetrated on a Dare

Charges may be filed against Pearl Brown and reportedly the girl’s father may be looking into therapy for her. According to WYFF though, it may not have been mental illness that drove the girl to make a false report, but a childhood game gone too far:

MAULDIN, S.C. — A teenage girl is accused of filing a false police report about being attacked on New Year’s Day, and hers is just one of many such cases over the past few years in the Upstate.

Mauldin police are still investigating what led 16-year-old Pearl Brown to lie about being attacked.

Mauldin Police Chief Bryan Turner said Tuesday that Brown injured herself and called on her own cell phone, pretending to be a man who had attacked her.

Detectives believe the teen did it because of a dare.

“From what I understand, it may have been partly in a dare — that somebody told her ‘Hey, this might be something to do,’” Mauldin Police Chief Bryan Turner told WYFF News 4. “I do think that she was looking for some attention. And she got it.”

The report goes on to list several other upstate false reporting cases including the infamous Kathryn Isbell’s false rape report. False reports may seem harmless, but they waste the limited time and resources smaller cities like Mauldin simply can’t spare.